UN Watchdog: ‘North Korea’s Restart Of Nuclear Enrichment Plant Deeply Troubling’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The United Nations nuclear watchdog warned Monday that nuclear-armed North Korea appears to have restarted its plutonium-producing reprocessing reactor.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called it “deeply troubling” development and a possible sign Pyongyang is expanding its banned weapons program.
The development of the 5-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon — North Korea’s main nuclear complex — comes with atomic talks between Pyongyang and Washington at a standstill.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered to dismantle part of the Yongbyon complex at a second summit with then U.S. President Donald J. Trump in exchange for sanctions relief. But Trump rejected his offer in part because he declined to close other nuclear sites.
Trump has criticized current President Joe Biden for not talking to the North Korean leader.
North Korea is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which have seen rapid progress under Kim.
REACTOR OPERATES
“Since early July, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the reactor,” the IAEA explained in its annual report.
The IAEA said the Yongbyon reactor appeared inactive from December 2018 until then, months after Joe Biden became U.S. president.
The development adds a new challenge to President Biden’s foreign policy agenda, alongside what critics view as the dangerous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He also halted talks on restoring the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program. It was not immediately clear whether Biden planned to pressure North Korea to stop activating the nuclear reactor.
Further complicating the standoff is that the IAEA has had no access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009.
The country then pressed ahead with its nuclear weapons program and soon resumed atomic testing. Its last nuclear test was in 2017, and something Trump recently told a rally of supporters.
“DEEPLY TROUBLING”
The IAEA now monitors North Korea from afar, mainly through satellite imagery.
“The new indications of the operation of the 5MW(e) reactor and the Radiochemical (reprocessing) Laboratory are deeply troubling,” it said.
There were only indications “for a period of time” that what is suspected to be a uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon was not in operation, it stressed. However, that has now changed, adding to more tensions between the North and U.S.-backed South Korea.
The IAEA added there were also indications of mining and concentration activities at a uranium mine and plant at Pyongsan. It underscored a more extensive nuclear program in the isolated authoritarian-ruled state.
Besides its nuclear program, there is also concern that hundreds of thousands of people, including Christians, are reportedly held in North Korea’s notorious labor camps. Several sources have confirmed many have been tortured and killed for their faith or political views in recent years.
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